Band connection for garments



Sept. 16, 1969 L. HEYMAN ET AL BAND CONNECTION FOR GARMENTS Filed March20, 1967 INVENTORS- ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,467,107 BANDCONNECTION FOR GARMENTS Louis Heyman, Bayonne, Bernard Netkin,Elizabeth, and

David Butvinik, Bayonne, N.J., assignors to Maidenform, Inc., New York,N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Mar. 20, 1967, Ser. No. 624,686Int. Cl. A41c 3/00 U.S. Cl. 128-501 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREThe object of the present invention is to provide an improvement in bandconnections for garments which eliminate hook-receiving eyes, whichimprovement consists of a combination including a primary integraltextile member which receives the hook or hooks in a special manner atany point along its exposed length.

Through the years, many efforts have been made to provide adjustableband connections for garments without the use of metal eyes or the like,which eyes have disadvantages long recognized. Thus it was proposed, forelements to receive the hooks, spaced wires arranged transversely of atextile band and held in place at their ends by strips of fabric; afurther attempt was to stitch successive fabric loops transversely onthe primary band to receive long flat hooks entering the loops at theirend open edges. These followed a still earlier effort which proposedstitching a short length of netting on the band to receive the hooks. Amuch later attempt was by proposing a tape having a succession oftransverse folds held by stitching the folds, at their upper and lowerends, to the primary band thus forming lateral pockets for receiving thehooks.

The various elforts to provide a commercially acceptable eye (or buckle)discarding combination have continued for decades and have not metsuccess, until the present invention.

By means of this invention, the primary band, which receives a hook orhooks of the coacting band, is woven rapidly and economically as acomplete unit in continuous lengths, with relatively heavy marginallongitudinal warp sections tied in, held, and separated by light butvery strong filament which visually appears between the said warpmargins as a ladder-like formation. When a plurality of rows of saidexposed ladder-like filament formation is woven into the warp, heavierwarp areas will lie at the margins of the band and also between each ofsaid rows. The distance between any two opposed warp areas may be inaccordance with the width of a hook on the coacting band and whichinterlocks wtih a plurality of crossed strands of the filament ladder.

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view looking at the inner face of a brassiereand showing application of the invention to bands for connecting theback members of the brassiere and for connecting the shoulder strapsleading to the cups from the back bands.

FIGURE 2 is a somewhat enlarged schematic plan view of a coactingprimary band in accordance with the invention, showing the fillerfilament separating a relatively heavy warp length at each margin andone at the center Patented Sept. 16, 1969 ICC of the band, two spacedladder-like rows of filament being exposed, and the filler filamentbeing cut away between raised ends of the spaced warp sections.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged schematic view, as if taken on transversesection, indicating merely the directions of a filler monofilament as itextends back and forth to tie in the warp thread groups into spacedstrip-like lengths, the figure being broken away at its right hand end.

Referring to the drawings, we have conventionally shown in FIG. 1 abrassiere having cups 1 connected to back bands 2, and provided withshoulder straps 3. For connecting the back bands, the back band on theright has seamed thereto a longitudinally elastic band 4 carrying twohooks 5. The left hand back-band has seamed thereto the coacting primaryband 6.

In schematic FIG. 3, it will be seen that the filament 7, leading fromthe right, has passed over the warp threads of the group at the right(one warp thread only being indicated at 6), thence under the warpthreads 8 of the central group, thence over the warp thread-s 9 of theleft hand group, thence under the latter, thence up over the centralgroup of warp threads 8, continuing under the group of warp threads 6.The filament then reverses its stated right hand throw.

FIG. 3 being merely schematic, it greatly exaggerates the lay of thefiller filament and warp shown. The filament between the indicatedsections of warp threads 8 is purposely shown in curves to visualizehow, by reverse throw, adjacent leads of the filament are crossed at theladderlike areas between marginal and central groups by warp threadstied in by the filament. Such is the purpose of FIG. 3; and the mannerin which the filament will be led to tie in the intermediate threads ofeach warp section; it will of course be as desired in accordance withstandard loom practice. For this reason, and for clarity ofillustration, the filament is not indicated in FIG. 2 at the ends of itsladder-like leads (left end).

The warp is preferably made of elastic threads, and a fine but strongfiller filament having spacing between adjacent leads thereof, providingthe ladder-like formation, does not materially restrict stretch of theprimary band. While the filler may be flexible, it is without materialstretch.

A monofilament is preferred, and the hook or hooks of the coacting bandwill engage filament loop sections extending in both transversedirections from the margins of the outer warp sections.

For the filler filament in brassiere and like relatively lightconnecting bands, the filament may be of fine, but strong nylon orpolypropylene, as examples. In FIG. 2 the filler filament in each of theexposed ladder-like areas is slightly spaced in groups, each group nearits ends tieing-in loops 10 of one or more warp threads. A hook of thecoacting band may engage all or many of the filler filament ladder leadsof a group, and the ladder may be composed of six or more fine fillerfilament leads, it being found that a high tensile nylon filament asfine as .010 gauge will withstand a pull of seven pounds.

This grouping formation is not essential, however, nor are the warpthread loops required, and the latter are not shown in FIG. 2.

It is desired that a relatively soft textile backing be provided for theprimary band, this being indicated in FIG. 2 at 11. Stitching 12 throughthe outer margins of the warp elements of the band and into the backingwill not only hold the two members together but will reinforce the loopsof the filler filaments encompassing the side edges of the band.

By means of the invention the combination is provided of a hook carryingband and a primary coacting integral textile band which receives andholds the hook or hooks, at any point along its length, by means ofexposed ladder- 3 like hook-receiving areas of a filler filament of hightensile strength, which are gripped in plurality by the hook or hooks.

A single ladder-like area, or two or more such areas, may extendlongitudinally of the primary band and each bordered by warp sectionstied in by the filament loops. The combination is stable, effective to ahigh degree, and economical. It may be applied not only to brassieresbut for the connecting bands of trousers and garments in general.

Having described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is as follows:

1. A band connection for garments comprising an integral woven fabricband member having at least two parallel strip-like mutually spacedwoven areas from which threads of said areas extend transversely acrossthe space between them and are exposed from end to end thereby providingan elongated ladder-like thread formation adapted to be engaged by thehook of a second band member.

Z. A band connection for garments comprised of a first band membercarrying at least one hook, and a second woven fabric band member havinga set of warp threads, and a filler filament for tieing in said warpthreads, said second band member having at least two parallel strip-likemutually spaced woven areas connected by the said filament by threadsextending transversely across the space between said strip-like areasand providing an elongated ladder-like exposed thread formation adaptedto be engaged by the hook of the first band members.

3. A band connection for garments constructed in accordance with claim 2in which the filament which provides a ladder-like thread formationbetween the spaced woven strip-like areas is led across the outerboundary edges of said second band member in successive reverselyextending leads, reverse leads of said filament successively crossingeach other at the space between each two striplike woven areas.

4. A band connection for garments constructed in accordance with claim 2in which the threads of the ladderlike formation are arranged in spacedparallel groups.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,482,640 9/1949 Spiess 1285583,076,463 2/ 1963 Vorsteher 128501 3,302,649 2/1967 Bruno 1285012,237,022 4/ 1941 Andrews 2237 ADELE M. EAGER, Primary Examiner US. Cl.X.R.

